Composers and musicians in the world of contemporary classical music have compared it to abstract art.
In contrast to the flowing, musically descriptive melodies of the classical composers of past centuries, many of today’s compositions — especially those performed by smaller ensembles — are open to whatever interpretation a listener gives to them.
The New York City-based, all-women Aizuri Quartet offers a mixture of contemporary and classical works that define the title of their upcoming concert program. “The Art of Translation” will be performed in Tulane University’s Dixon Hall on Monday, March 27, under the sponsorship of New Orleans Friends of Music and the annual NOLA Chamber Music Festival sponsored by Lyrica Baroque.
“This program explores how different art forms translate across different mediums and how different art forms inspire creativity across mediums," said Karen Ouzounian, one of four original members who founded the quartet in 2012.
The name of the quartet was inspired by a Japanese style of indigo blue woodblock printing known as aizuri-e.
The four women who comprise the quartet — Emma Frucht and Miho Saegusa on violins, Ayane Kozasa on viola and Ouzounian on cello — will perform three pieces composed between 2019 and 2021 and two short art songs from the early 1800s by Franz Schubert in the first half of the program.
The 40-minute, four-movement Schubert String Quartet No. 14 in D minor, “Death and the Maiden,” will encompass the program’s entire second half.
The two Schubert pieces in the first half, which traditionally feature a vocal soloist and a full orchestra, were custom arranged for a string quartet (minus the singer) by violinist Jannina Norpoth, a frequent collaborator with the group.
“So what we have in the first half are three wonderful contemporary composers who are responding to three different art forms and composing string quartets,” Ouzounian said. “Each of them was inspired by a different work of art in the visual art medium by three different artists.”
Playing the smooth-flowing Schubert works between the somewhat choppy, free-form contemporary pieces was intentional “as a moment for the ears to pause and for the audience to reflect,” Ouzounian said.
Frucht, the newest member of the quartet, expressed a similar take on the program selection and how it came about.
She noted that “with newer classical music, there are a lot of parallels that can be drawn to visual art and the progression of different traditions of visual art throughout the years; particularly abstract art. It’s like a painting in which you can’t figure out what it is but it makes you feel something."
“A lot of contemporary music, when you hear it, can be a little bit shocking because it seems so new,” Frucht said. “But a great way to start to digest it is to just tap into how it makes you feel and the emotions you’re experiencing and the thoughts you are having while listening to it, and starting from there.”
“The Art of Translation”
WHO: The Aizuri String Quartet, sponsored by New Orleans Friends of Music
WHAT: A two-part concert of contemporary and classical chamber music works
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Monday, March 27
WHERE: Dixon Hall, Tulane University campus, New Orleans
TICKETS: $35 ($18 for age 35 and under). Students with ID free
INFO: (504) 895-0690. www.friendsofmusic.org
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